Lexmark has spent nearly 20 years fighting the war on carbon, trying to stop you from refilling your laser printer cartridges. In 2003, they attempted to use the DMCA and DRM to argue that it was an act of piracy (the courts didn't buy it) and then in 2015, they went all the way to the Supreme Court with the idea that you were violating their patent license terms if you treated the cartridges you purchased as though you owned them.
(more…)

]]>

Lexmark has spent nearly 20 years fighting the war on carbon, trying to stop you from refilling your laser printer cartridges. In 2003, they attempted to use the DMCA and DRM to argue that it was an act of piracy (the courts didn't buy it) and then in 2015, they went all the way to the Supreme Court with the idea that you were violating their patent license terms if you treated the cartridges you purchased as though you owned them.
(more…)

]]>http://boingboing.net/2017/05/30/printer-eschatology.html/feed33526534MP3 put out to pasturehttp://boingboing.net/2017/05/01/mp3-put-out-to-pasture.html
http://boingboing.net/2017/05/01/mp3-put-out-to-pasture.html#commentsTue, 02 May 2017 00:47:47 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=522343It's the end of an era, sort of: Fraunhofer IIS, the developers of the MP3 audio compression format, announced that they are ceasing their licensing program. In a blog post, spokesman Matthias Rose says that it's had a good 20-year run and is obsolete. But it's also true that the decoding patents expired last year, and the last encoding patents are soon to follow. So there's not much hope of selling any licenses in any case.]]>It's the end of an era, sort of: Fraunhofer IIS, the developers of the MP3 audio compression format, announced that they are ceasing their licensing program. In a blog post, spokesman Matthias Rose says that it's had a good 20-year run and is obsolete. But it's also true that the decoding patents expired last year, and the last encoding patents are soon to follow. So there's not much hope of selling any licenses in any case.]]>http://boingboing.net/2017/05/01/mp3-put-out-to-pasture.html/feed96522343India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research blew so much money on rubbish patents, it's gone brokehttp://boingboing.net/2017/03/24/literal-demonitisation.html
http://boingboing.net/2017/03/24/literal-demonitisation.html#commentsFri, 24 Mar 2017 11:01:50 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=515687

CSIR-Tech is the commercial arm of the Indian government's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research; after spending ₹50 crore (about USD7.6M) pursuing more than 13,000 "bio-data patents" (patents of no real value save burnishing the credentials of the scientists whose names appear on them), they have run out of money and shut down.
(more…)

]]>

CSIR-Tech is the commercial arm of the Indian government's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research; after spending ₹50 crore (about USD7.6M) pursuing more than 13,000 "bio-data patents" (patents of no real value save burnishing the credentials of the scientists whose names appear on them), they have run out of money and shut down.
(more…)

]]>http://boingboing.net/2017/03/24/literal-demonitisation.html/feed6515687Donald Trump, Jr is a patent-troll and his biggest client now does business with the US governmenthttp://boingboing.net/2017/03/13/christ-what-an-asshole-3.html
http://boingboing.net/2017/03/13/christ-what-an-asshole-3.html#commentsMon, 13 Mar 2017 17:41:50 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=514104

Oklahoma's Anyware Mobile Solutions was founded in 1997 to make PDA software, but after its sales collapsed, it changed its name to Macrosolve and devoted itself to suing people for violating a farcical patent that they said covered filling in questionnaires using an app.
(more…)

]]>

Oklahoma's Anyware Mobile Solutions was founded in 1997 to make PDA software, but after its sales collapsed, it changed its name to Macrosolve and devoted itself to suing people for violating a farcical patent that they said covered filling in questionnaires using an app.
(more…)

]]>http://boingboing.net/2017/03/01/alice-vs-cls-bank.html/feed21512270Public universities and even the US Navy have sold hundreds of patents to America's most notorious trollhttp://boingboing.net/2016/10/19/public-universities-and-even-t.html
http://boingboing.net/2016/10/19/public-universities-and-even-t.html#commentsWed, 19 Oct 2016 09:54:44 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=489392

Researcher Yarden Katz scraped the database of Intellectual Ventures, a giant business that buys up patents, but produces nothing but lawsuits (previously), and discovered that IV claims ownership of nearly 500 patents that were created at public expense by researchers employed by public universities, and another 100 or so patents filed by the US Navy.
(more…)

]]>

Researcher Yarden Katz scraped the database of Intellectual Ventures, a giant business that buys up patents, but produces nothing but lawsuits (previously), and discovered that IV claims ownership of nearly 500 patents that were created at public expense by researchers employed by public universities, and another 100 or so patents filed by the US Navy.
(more…)

Unified Patents raises money from companies that are the target of patent-trolling and then uses it to challenge the most widely used patents in each of its members' sectors: now it's going for the gold.
(more…)

]]>

Unified Patents raises money from companies that are the target of patent-trolling and then uses it to challenge the most widely used patents in each of its members' sectors: now it's going for the gold.
(more…)

Alexander McQueen's first collection after graduating from Central Saint Martins was Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims which included locks of his hair; for her own grad project, called "Pure Human," Central Saint Martins student Tina Gorjanc created a line of clothes and accessories that asks the audience to imagine that it was made from pelts cloned from DNA retrieved from McQueen's hair strands.
(more…)

]]>

Alexander McQueen's first collection after graduating from Central Saint Martins was Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims which included locks of his hair; for her own grad project, called "Pure Human," Central Saint Martins student Tina Gorjanc created a line of clothes and accessories that asks the audience to imagine that it was made from pelts cloned from DNA retrieved from McQueen's hair strands.
(more…)

The patent, which was granted on 17 May, is for a sticky adhesive layer on the front end of a vehicle, which would aim to reduce the damage caused when a pedestrian hit by a car is flung into other vehicles or scenery.

“Ideally, the adhesive coating on the front portion of the vehicle may be activated on contact and will be able to adhere to the pedestrian nearly instantaneously,” according to the patent description.

The patent, which was granted on 17 May, is for a sticky adhesive layer on the front end of a vehicle, which would aim to reduce the damage caused when a pedestrian hit by a car is flung into other vehicles or scenery.

“Ideally, the adhesive coating on the front portion of the vehicle may be activated on contact and will be able to adhere to the pedestrian nearly instantaneously,” according to the patent description.

Rose Eveleth presents us a history of patented menstrual devices from 1928 on, from cellular tampons that message you when they need changing to a "Nether garment for and method of controlling crotch odors."
(more…)

]]>

Rose Eveleth presents us a history of patented menstrual devices from 1928 on, from cellular tampons that message you when they need changing to a "Nether garment for and method of controlling crotch odors."
(more…)

Michael Geist has rung in the new year with the first in a series of posts that set out, in eye-watering detail, the bowel-loosening terror of the effects that the secretly negotiated Trans Pacific Partnership would have on Canada if the country ratifies it.
(more…)

]]>

Michael Geist has rung in the new year with the first in a series of posts that set out, in eye-watering detail, the bowel-loosening terror of the effects that the secretly negotiated Trans Pacific Partnership would have on Canada if the country ratifies it.
(more…)

Russell Stover's innovative Eskimo Pie treats were the smash-hit of 1920, and represented the culmination of long and careful experimentation with different techniques for adding a chocolate coating to ice-cream.
(more…)

]]>

Russell Stover's innovative Eskimo Pie treats were the smash-hit of 1920, and represented the culmination of long and careful experimentation with different techniques for adding a chocolate coating to ice-cream.
(more…)

Former IBM division Lexmark (which, a decade ago, lost a key copyright case that tried to ban ink-toner refilling) is headed to court in a patent case called Lexmark v. Impression, where it argues that patent law gives it the right to restrict your use of your property after you buy it.
(more…)

]]>

Former IBM division Lexmark (which, a decade ago, lost a key copyright case that tried to ban ink-toner refilling) is headed to court in a patent case called Lexmark v. Impression, where it argues that patent law gives it the right to restrict your use of your property after you buy it.
(more…)

The stylized art of patent drawings is instantly recognizable. Before the information age, the drawings were drafter's jewelboxes, designed to make the workings of new mechanical inventions legible to other inventors (and patent examiners).
(more…)

]]>

The stylized art of patent drawings is instantly recognizable. Before the information age, the drawings were drafter's jewelboxes, designed to make the workings of new mechanical inventions legible to other inventors (and patent examiners).
(more…)

Derek Khanna, who spearheaded the legislative initiative that made phone unlocking legal, has published a report on patent reform with the libertarian-leaning Lincoln Labs that sets out the case for patent reform being necessary for economic liberty.
(more…)

]]>

Derek Khanna, who spearheaded the legislative initiative that made phone unlocking legal, has published a report on patent reform with the libertarian-leaning Lincoln Labs that sets out the case for patent reform being necessary for economic liberty.
(more…)

]]>http://boingboing.net/2015/06/18/the-libertarian-case-for-paten.html/feed8398614Stupid patent for the ages: "Changing order quantities"http://boingboing.net/2015/05/01/stupid-patent-for-the-ages.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/05/01/stupid-patent-for-the-ages.html#commentsFri, 01 May 2015 16:00:44 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=384439
The USPTO granted a notorious patent troll a patent on allowing customers to change quantities after they place their initial order.
(more…)]]>
The USPTO granted a notorious patent troll a patent on allowing customers to change quantities after they place their initial order.
(more…)]]>http://boingboing.net/2015/05/01/stupid-patent-for-the-ages.html/feed7384439John Oliver on patent trollshttp://boingboing.net/2015/04/22/john-oliver-on-patent-trolls.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/04/22/john-oliver-on-patent-trolls.html#commentsWed, 22 Apr 2015 13:00:14 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=381567

http://boingboing.net/2015/04/22/john-oliver-on-patent-trolls.html/feed5381567EFF: Here's how to fix patents in Americahttp://boingboing.net/2015/02/23/eff-heres-how-to-fix-patent.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/02/23/eff-heres-how-to-fix-patent.html#commentsMon, 23 Feb 2015 19:22:30 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=366706
Two years in the making, Defend Innovation is a whitepaper by Electronic Frontier Foundation attorneys, setting out a program for fixing America's horribly busted patent system.
(more…)]]>
Two years in the making, Defend Innovation is a whitepaper by Electronic Frontier Foundation attorneys, setting out a program for fixing America's horribly busted patent system.
(more…)]]>http://boingboing.net/2015/02/23/eff-heres-how-to-fix-patent.html/feed4366706Pfizer threatens pharmacists, doctors if they take its name in vainhttp://boingboing.net/2014/12/24/pfizer-threatens-pharmacists.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/12/24/pfizer-threatens-pharmacists.html#commentsWed, 24 Dec 2014 12:39:14 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=355230
Pfizer's patent on pregabalin -- an anti-epilepsy med -- expires this year, but there's another patent on using the public domain drug to treat neuropathic pain; in a shocking letter to UK doctors, the pharma giant warns of dire consequences should medical professionals dare to prescribe the generic for the patented use.
(more…)]]>
Pfizer's patent on pregabalin -- an anti-epilepsy med -- expires this year, but there's another patent on using the public domain drug to treat neuropathic pain; in a shocking letter to UK doctors, the pharma giant warns of dire consequences should medical professionals dare to prescribe the generic for the patented use.
(more…)]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/12/24/pfizer-threatens-pharmacists.html/feed33355230One weird legal trick that makes patent trolls cryhttp://boingboing.net/2014/10/13/one-weird-legal-trick-that-mak.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/10/13/one-weird-legal-trick-that-mak.html#commentsMon, 13 Oct 2014 22:00:33 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=337629
The Judicial Conference of the US has approved the elimination of Rule 84, a court procedure designed to help small patent-holders streamline their lawsuits, but which has been weaponized by patent trolls, who use it to indiscriminately file lawsuits on a mass scale in the hopes of bullying quick settlements out of their victims.
(more…)]]>
The Judicial Conference of the US has approved the elimination of Rule 84, a court procedure designed to help small patent-holders streamline their lawsuits, but which has been weaponized by patent trolls, who use it to indiscriminately file lawsuits on a mass scale in the hopes of bullying quick settlements out of their victims.
(more…)]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/10/13/one-weird-legal-trick-that-mak.html/feed7337629US Patent Office awards patent to herbal snakeoil that "kills cancer"http://boingboing.net/2014/08/29/us-patent-office-awards-patent.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/08/29/us-patent-office-awards-patent.html#commentsSat, 30 Aug 2014 03:00:57 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=328048
The USPTO awarded Patent 8,609,158 last December for a mix of "evening primrose oil, rice, sesame seeds, green beans, coffee, meat, cheese, milk, green tea extract, evening primrose seeds, and wine" that "rebukes cancer, cancer cells, and kills cancer" -- the accompanying extract states, "it works." Sounds legit.
(more…)]]>
The USPTO awarded Patent 8,609,158 last December for a mix of "evening primrose oil, rice, sesame seeds, green beans, coffee, meat, cheese, milk, green tea extract, evening primrose seeds, and wine" that "rebukes cancer, cancer cells, and kills cancer" -- the accompanying extract states, "it works." Sounds legit.
(more…)]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/08/29/us-patent-office-awards-patent.html/feed25328048Law Comics: legal masterclass in webcomic formhttp://boingboing.net/2014/06/30/law-comics-legal-masterclass.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/06/30/law-comics-legal-masterclass.html#commentsMon, 30 Jun 2014 18:00:57 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=315163
With Law Comics, Cambridge law PhD candidate Julia Powles and illustrator Ilias Kyriazis are creating a masterclass in thorny issues of law...in webcomic form!
(more…)]]>
With Law Comics, Cambridge law PhD candidate Julia Powles and illustrator Ilias Kyriazis are creating a masterclass in thorny issues of law...in webcomic form!
(more…)]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/06/30/law-comics-legal-masterclass.html/feed2315163Supreme Court invalidates software patent because it's a software patenthttp://boingboing.net/2014/06/19/supreme-court-invalidates-soft.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/06/19/supreme-court-invalidates-soft.html#commentsThu, 19 Jun 2014 16:05:07 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=312618

In a stunning verdict, the Supreme Court has tossed out a patent because it is a software patent, ruling that "merely requiring generic computer implementation fails to transform that abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention" -- that is, adding "with a computer" doesn't make a new patentable invention. This is seismic, and not just because of what it says about whether software is patentable in America, but because of how it escalates the turf war between the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit, which is the nation's "patent court."

The Supremes have spent more than a year pumping out decisions that fly in the face of the Federal Circuit's longstanding precedents, but the Federal Circuit judges have refused to consider Supreme Court decisions when hearing new cases -- meaning that every time the Federal Circuit goes against a Supreme Court judgment, you have to apply to have the case retried in front of the Supremes to get justice. Normal practice is for Federal judges to treat the Supremes as having the last word on US legal interpretation, so when the Supremes rule, all the lower courts follow.

There have been rumors about the Federal Circuit being abolished -- or having jurisdiction over patents yanked -- as the turf war has heated up. Federal Circuit judges have a reputation for being ideologically biased towards patents as a matter of course, wanting to use patents to solve every problem. It's classic regulatory capture -- patent judges tend to start life as patent lawyers, and are improperly chummy with the white-shoe lawyers who appear before them.

In a stunning verdict, the Supreme Court has tossed out a patent because it is a software patent, ruling that "merely requiring generic computer implementation fails to transform that abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention" -- that is, adding "with a computer" doesn't make a new patentable invention. This is seismic, and not just because of what it says about whether software is patentable in America, but because of how it escalates the turf war between the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit, which is the nation's "patent court."

The Supremes have spent more than a year pumping out decisions that fly in the face of the Federal Circuit's longstanding precedents, but the Federal Circuit judges have refused to consider Supreme Court decisions when hearing new cases -- meaning that every time the Federal Circuit goes against a Supreme Court judgment, you have to apply to have the case retried in front of the Supremes to get justice. Normal practice is for Federal judges to treat the Supremes as having the last word on US legal interpretation, so when the Supremes rule, all the lower courts follow.

There have been rumors about the Federal Circuit being abolished -- or having jurisdiction over patents yanked -- as the turf war has heated up. Federal Circuit judges have a reputation for being ideologically biased towards patents as a matter of course, wanting to use patents to solve every problem. It's classic regulatory capture -- patent judges tend to start life as patent lawyers, and are improperly chummy with the white-shoe lawyers who appear before them.

http://boingboing.net/2014/06/19/supreme-court-invalidates-soft.html/feed23312618Top US patent judge resigns after ethics breachhttp://boingboing.net/2014/06/17/top-us-patent-judge-resigns-af.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/06/17/top-us-patent-judge-resigns-af.html#commentsWed, 18 Jun 2014 02:00:24 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=311825
Judge Randall Rader, the top US patent judge, has resigned from the bench after he sent a letter to a patent attorney praising his courtroom appearance, inviting him to share the letter publicly. Radar is one of the top ambassadors for the US patent system, touring the world giving speeches extolling its virtues. He's planning to spend the rest of his life teaching patent law in global universities.
(more…)]]>
Judge Randall Rader, the top US patent judge, has resigned from the bench after he sent a letter to a patent attorney praising his courtroom appearance, inviting him to share the letter publicly. Radar is one of the top ambassadors for the US patent system, touring the world giving speeches extolling its virtues. He's planning to spend the rest of his life teaching patent law in global universities.
(more…)]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/06/17/top-us-patent-judge-resigns-af.html/feed8311825Museum of patent modelshttp://boingboing.net/2014/06/13/museum-of-patent-models.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/06/13/museum-of-patent-models.html#commentsFri, 13 Jun 2014 17:57:12 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=311089

]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/06/13/museum-of-patent-models.html/feed5311089What's the story with the Makerbot patent?http://boingboing.net/2014/05/30/whats-the-story-with-the-mak.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/05/30/whats-the-story-with-the-mak.html#commentsFri, 30 May 2014 13:36:03 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=307138Makerbot is a company that started out building "pure" open source hardware, built on the Reprap project, and has since selectively closed some of it source code, and filed patents on some of its hardware. This has aroused justifiable alarm and overblown ire from the company's fans and followers. Justifiable alarm because once a company starts dabbling in being closed, it's hard to know what'll happen next -- especially once that company is subsumed into a large, publicly traded company like Stratasys. But overblown ire because the proprietary elements were, fundamentally, proprietary -- the parts that Makerbot made all or nearly all the contributions to, while the "community" elements of its business still received plenty of source code and hardware innovations from the company. (more…)]]>Makerbot is a company that started out building "pure" open source hardware, built on the Reprap project, and has since selectively closed some of it source code, and filed patents on some of its hardware. This has aroused justifiable alarm and overblown ire from the company's fans and followers. Justifiable alarm because once a company starts dabbling in being closed, it's hard to know what'll happen next -- especially once that company is subsumed into a large, publicly traded company like Stratasys. But overblown ire because the proprietary elements were, fundamentally, proprietary -- the parts that Makerbot made all or nearly all the contributions to, while the "community" elements of its business still received plenty of source code and hardware innovations from the company. (more…)]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/05/30/whats-the-story-with-the-mak.html/feed4307138